AFTERSHOCK

DIRECTOR: Feng Xiaogang - CHINA

This year’s Chinese submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar also reigns as the most popular film in Chinese box office history. Feng Xiaogang tells the epic story of the survivors of one of China’s greatest natural disasters, the Tangshan Earthquake of 1976, which killed nearly 250,000 people. What starts as a disaster movie of Titanic proportions—with impressive special effects—moves to a deeply moving family melodrama that has wrung billions of tears from Chinese audiences. When the earthquake strikes, father Daqing is killed, and mother Yuanni (Xu Fan) is forced to make an impossible choice involving her two children...

This year’s Chinese submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar also reigns as the most popular film in Chinese box office history. Feng Xiaogang tells the epic story of the survivors of one of China’s greatest natural disasters, the Tangshan Earthquake of 1976, which killed nearly 250,000 people. What starts as a disaster movie of Titanic proportions—with impressive special effects—moves to a deeply moving family melodrama that has wrung billions of tears from Chinese audiences. When the earthquake strikes, father Daqing is killed, and mother Yuanni (Xu Fan) is forced to make an impossible choice involving her two children that will haunt them for the rest of their lives. Mother, son, and daughter, against the background of three decades of rapidly advancing Chinese society, must find the emotional pathways to reconnect with each other. While on one hand a work designed for the broadest commercial appeal, the insights into Chinese history, culture, family, and values are profound. (135 mins.)

Selected Filmography: Dream Factory (97), Big Shot’s Funeral (02), The Banquet (06), Assembly (07), If You Are the One (08).

ALL THAT I LOVE

DIRECTOR: Jacek Borcuch - POLAND

Eighteen-year-old Janek has a dream familiar to many kids his age: start a band with your best friends, write provocative music, hang out with your girlfriend, lose your virginity. However, in 1981 Communist Poland, those dreams can lead to nightmares: martial law is threatened as the Solidarity movement gains increasing momentum, and Janek begins to realize that his band’s anti-establishment message could well lead to trouble for his friends and family. With a naval officer father and a girlfriend whose own father is under investigation by the state, Janek’s coming-of-age is fraught with conflict between his ideals and his desire...

Eighteen-year-old Janek has a dream familiar to many kids his age: start a band with your best friends, write provocative music, hang out with your girlfriend, lose your virginity. However, in 1981 Communist Poland, those dreams can lead to nightmares: martial law is threatened as the Solidarity movement gains increasing momentum, and Janek begins to realize that his band’s anti-establishment message could well lead to trouble for his friends and family. With a naval officer father and a girlfriend whose own father is under investigation by the state, Janek’s coming-of-age is fraught with conflict between his ideals and his desire to protect the ones he loves. “Deftly combining music, romance, politics, and family drama, this autobiographical feature is a thorough charmer.”—Variety. (95 mins.)

Selected Filmography: Kallafiorr (00), Tulips (04).

This year’s Polish submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Sponsored by the Polish Library Association, Portland, and the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland, Los Angeles.

APRIL SNOW

DIRECTOR: Lewis Klahr - UNITED STATES

“Another ‘couplet’ from my ongoing Prolix Satori series. I thought up the juxtapostion of these two pop songs while creating a mix-tape back in 1988 but never thought I’d work with them as a film soundtrack. Back then the taboo in experimental film circles about using music was so strong it seemed permanent.”—L.K. (10 mins.)

“Another ‘couplet’ from my ongoing Prolix Satori series. I thought up the juxtapostion of these two pop songs while creating a mix-tape back in 1988 but never thought I’d work with them as a film soundtrack. Back then the taboo in experimental film circles about using music was so strong it seemed permanent.”—L.K. (10 mins.)

THE ARBOR

DIRECTOR: Clio Barnard - GREAT BRITAIN

British playwright Andrea Dunbar made a name for herself in 1980 with the raw semi-autobiographical play (later a film) “Rita, Sue and Bob Too.” The plot is set in The Arbor, a poor housing project in the English town of Bradford and a hotbed of domestic squabbles, eternally drunk and vulgar fathers, frustrated mothers, and children in trouble with the law. Dunbar had a similarly hard life, dying at age 29 and leaving behind three young children by three different fathers. Over a two-year period, Barnard made recordings of conversations she had with members and acquaintances of the Dunbar family,...

British playwright Andrea Dunbar made a name for herself in 1980 with the raw semi-autobiographical play (later a film) “Rita, Sue and Bob Too.” The plot is set in The Arbor, a poor housing project in the English town of Bradford and a hotbed of domestic squabbles, eternally drunk and vulgar fathers, frustrated mothers, and children in trouble with the law. Dunbar had a similarly hard life, dying at age 29 and leaving behind three young children by three different fathers. Over a two-year period, Barnard made recordings of conversations she had with members and acquaintances of the Dunbar family, then reconstructed the playwright’s life with the help of actors who lip-synch the recordings. Barnard seamlessly stitches together these disparate but innovative elements, matching Dunbar’s unconventional life with a befittingly unconventional film that, while framed as a documentary, is really its own eloquent, genre-defying performance work on film. (94 mins.)

ARMADILLO

DIRECTOR: Janus Metz - DENMARK

Armadillo is the name of a heavily fortified UK-Danish army base in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. In 2009, Metz and crew followed a group of young Danish recruits as they adjusted to the grim realities of conflict, inside and outside their secure camp. The result is one of the most harrowing reports on the war and a vivid portrait of the impact of boredom and battle on mind and body. Venturing off the base, the voices of Afghan citizens, caught in the complexities of the coalition and Taliban crossfire, reveal the daunting challenge of finding a stable peace. Whether capturing the...

Armadillo is the name of a heavily fortified UK-Danish army base in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. In 2009, Metz and crew followed a group of young Danish recruits as they adjusted to the grim realities of conflict, inside and outside their secure camp. The result is one of the most harrowing reports on the war and a vivid portrait of the impact of boredom and battle on mind and body. Venturing off the base, the voices of Afghan citizens, caught in the complexities of the coalition and Taliban crossfire, reveal the daunting challenge of finding a stable peace. Whether capturing the immediacy of a firefight, the tedious routine of army life, or the tragic civilian realities, Armadillo avoids judgment by leaving it to the viewer to grapple with the frustration, insanity, and confusion of this, and any, war. (100 mins.)